Variety du Parton

I found a new program (well to me anyway) on my computer, Picassa, and started playing around with it. To my great delight I discovered it has a collage feature that pops in as many photos as you select and resizes them to fit various templates. Very cool.

The boys have finally got a week to chill at home, and now that they're stronger swimmer I've lifted the ban on pond swimming so Ben and Ethan have been spending parts of everyday floating around on tubes and jumping off the dock. We're also getting projects together for Fair and finding last minute editions to some collections (leaves, wildflowers, insects, and rocks). They also spent a fair amount of time playing old Playstation 2 games and had a Harry Potter movie marathon, watching them all from beginning to end.
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Fox is in a teenage boy body-building phase and is always asking about exercises to build different muscle groups. He's also very conscientious about what he eats. He walks everyday, long runs one day, does sprints the next, and then bikes a bit on the third day plus does weight lifting each day. And he never stops eating! Cross-country practices start in a couple weeks, I think he'll be ready for his jump to the 3-mile race.

Japanese Tea Garden, Golden Gate Park


Big Sur, California

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4H Mystery Clue Camp was a big hit. It started off extremely hot the Wednesday of drop-off and not many slept that night because even with fans the cabins were extremely stuffy. Thursday was high temps and humidity as well and an extra swim time was added in. The kids still had a great time doing crafts, experiments, solving a murder mystery in the woods during the Nature session, and of course swimming at the lake. The big time fun was their huge slip-n-slide, I've never seen one so long before. Thankfully things cooled down Thursday night and the kids were so exhausted from a full, fun day everyone slept like babies. Friday started off pretty tolerable weather-wise but did warm up by afternoon. Science was contraption day, we made catapults, wobble balls, and more. They also had crafts and a lesson on train safety. In the evening for group activity the kids played Predator / Prey where they are omnivore, carnivore, herbivore, and a couple humans and they all vie for food and water beans. Both boys had a great time and are planning on participating next year; I would like to be involved again as well.

Alex has been working 3rd shift all summer which has put her on a very odd routine. She's still supposed to take a couple placement tests before finalizing her enrollment for the Fall semester at Mott. She has one class she is retaking for a passing grade (part of the academic probation clean-up), a second guitar class and she needs to get her math and English credits squared away. Supposedly her manager is moving her back to days next week, which better happen so she can get back on a normal schedule before classes start!

I am going to be returning to school myself in the Fall through Mott Continuing Education, which excites me very much. They are online classes which is optimal for my busy life, I can still substitute teach without scheduling problems and get the boys to their activities. The classes I'm interested in are about starting a 501c corporation, writing grants, and fundraising. There are many ideas I have for supporting academics through artful endeavors and it's getting to be time to put all my experiences together in a cognitive form and start branching out.....but first, I've got a lot to learn. ;)

Robert is also heading into a huge shift as far as his employment goes. Not going to give it away yet but our family routine will adjust drastically, in a good way, very soon.

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